It is particularly desirable to employ Staphylococcal genes and gene products as targets for the development of antibiotics. The Staphylococci make up a medically important genera of microbes. They are known to produce two types of disease, invasive and toxigenic. Invasive infections are characterized generally by abscess formation effecting both skin surfaces and deep tissues. S. aureus is the second leading cause of bacteremia in cancer patients. Osteomyelitis, septic arthritis, septic thrombophlebitis and acute bacterial endocarditis are also relatively common. There are at least three clinical conditions resulting from the toxigenic properties of Staphylococci. The manifestation of these diseases result from the actions of exotoxins as opposed to tissue invasion and bacteremia. These conditions include: Staphylococcal food poisoning, scalded skin syndrome and toxic shock syndrome.
The frequency of Staphylococcus aureus infections has risen dramatically in the past 20 years. This has been attributed to the emergence of multiply antibiotic resistant strains and an increasing population of people with weakened immune systems. It is no longer uncommon to isolate Staphylococcus aureus strains which are resistant to some or all of the standard antibiotics. This has created a demand for both new anti-microbial agents and diagnostic tests for this organism.
The gidB gene is a member of the gidB family of genes. The first described member of this family was the gidB gene of E. coli (von Meyenburg et al (1980) ICN-UCLA Symp. Mol. Cell. Biol. 19, 137-159). All other family members have been identified on the basis of their homology to E. coli gidB. The closest homolog of S. aureus gidB is Bacillus subtilis gidB (Ogasawara, N. & Yoshikawa, H. (1992) Mol. Microbiol. 6(5), 629-634. Genbank accession number P25813)
Clearly, there is a need for factors, such as the novel compounds of the invention, that have a present benefit of being useful to screen compounds for antibiotic activity. Such factors are also useful to determine their role in pathogenesis of infection, dysfunction and disease. There is also a need for identification and characterization of such factors and their antagonists and agonists which can play a role in preventing, ameliorating or correcting infections, dysfunctions or diseases.
The polypeptides of the invention have amino acid sequence homology to a known Bacillus subtilis gidB protein.